Sunday, December 06, 2015

Turkey financial gains on ISIS oil exposed but why is there is no US condemnation?

US reaction to Daesh oil transfer to Turkey 'theater of absurd'

Oil well pumps at the Rmeilane oil field in Syria's northeastern Hasakeh province

Russia has blamed the US for attempts to cover up the smuggling of illicit oil into Turkey from the Syrian territory under the occupation of Daesh terrorists after Washington's claims that the amount of such oil transfers is negligible.

"When US officials say they don't see how the terrorists' oil is smuggled to Turkey... it smells badly of a desire to cover up these acts," said Russian Defense Ministry in a Saturday statement on Facebook.

"The declarations of the Pentagon and the State Department seem like a theater of the absurd," the statement further noted, saying US authorities "watch the videos taken by its (own) drones which have recently been three times as numerous over the Turkey-Syria border and above the oil zones."

An undated still image, taken from a video released by Russia’s Defense Ministry on December 2, 2015,shows what it described as the Turkish-Syrian border crossing with columns of tanker trucks loaded with oil at installations controlled by the Daesh terrorist group in Syria and Iraq.

The development came as US special envoy and coordinator for international energy affairs, Amos Hochstein, stated on Friday that the quantity of oil illicitly trafficked into Turkey from Syrian territories that remain under the control of the Daesh terror group is "of no significance from a volume perspective -- both volume of oil and volume of revenue."

"I don't believe that there is significant smuggling, between ISIL-controlled areas and Turkey of oil in any significance in volume," said the senior US official on Friday.

A screen grab from a video released by the Russian Defense Ministry shows Russian jets targeting a convoy of Daesh tankers transporting oil. (RT)

Hochstein’s remarks came after the Kremlin alleged that Ankara was profiting from the illegitimate trade.

Moscow and Ankara have been exchanging allegations in recent days over Turkey’s involvement in the illicit oil trade.

Tensions have been escalating between the two countries after Turkish war planes shot down a Russian bomber on the Syrian border.

NATO authorities have estimated that Daesh pockets $1.0 million to $1.5 million per day from the smuggling of stolen Syrian oil into Turkey, expressing "hopes" that renewed air strikes by US, British and French forces reduce that amount.

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SOUTHWEST ASIA, December 6, 2015 — U.S. and coalition military forces have continued to attack Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant terrorists in Syria and Iraq, Combined Joint Task Force Operation Inherent Resolve officials reported today.

Officials reported details of the latest strikes, noting that assessments of results are based on initial reports.

-- Near Sinjar, two strikes struck two separate ISIL tactical units and destroyed three ISIL fighting positions and two ISIL heavy machine guns.

-- Near Sultan Abdallah, one strike struck an ISIL tactical unit and destroyed an ISIL fighting position, an ISIL heavy machine gun, and an ISIL vehicle.

Task force officials define a strike as one or more kinetic events that occur in roughly the same geographic location to produce a single, sometimes cumulative, effect. Therefore, officials explained, a single aircraft delivering a single weapon against a lone ISIL vehicle is one strike, but so is multiple aircraft delivering dozens of weapons against buildings, vehicles and weapon systems in a compound, for example, having the cumulative effect of making those targets harder or impossible for ISIL to use. Accordingly, officials said, they do not report the number or type of aircraft employed in a strike, the number of munitions dropped in each strike, or the number of individual munition impact points against a target.

Magnificent Ronald and the Founding Fathers of al Qaeda

“These gentlemen are the moral equivalents of America’s founding fathers.” — Ronald Reagan while introducing the Mujahideen leaders to media on the White house lawns (1985). During Reagan’s 8 years in power, the CIA secretly sent billions of dollars of military aid to the mujahedeen in Afghanistan in a US-supported jihad against the Soviet Union. We repeated the insanity with ISIS against Syria.